Caring about design

Two designers hope to create a care home environment that people with dementia deserve, writes JOANNE HUNT

CLEVER, ATTRACTIVE design isn’t what you expect from a residential care home but one young designer thinks differently.

Dublin-born Gregor Timlin has just unveiled the fruits of a two-year project looking at how better design in care homes can improve the quality of life for older people with dementia.

“It was our aspiration to improve the lives of older people with dementia in care, and use design, even in the smallest way, to help them live at the highest level of their ability,” says Timlin.

Having studied furniture design at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Timlin went on to complete an MA at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. From there, the 29 year old became a research associate at the Helen Hamlyn Centre, an RCA group with a special focus on inclusive design and patient safety.

Partnered with Bupa on the project, a company that operates 35,000 care home beds in the UK and further afield, Timlin and fellow research associate, Nic Rysenbry, set about using their skills to “design for dementia”.

Their project addressed two important areas in the care home, with Timlin looking at dining spaces and Rysenbry bedrooms – both areas hosting activities fundamental to daily living.

The two designers spent 28 days in care homes in the UK, observing and interviewing residents and staff, and holding focus groups with those in the early stages of dementia.

For Timlin, what he observed was familiar territory. His father, a former engineer, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease nine years ago and is now cared for in the family home. “It’s made me an advocate for those with dementia being helped to maintain as much of their independence as possible,” says Timlin.

He identifies tableware as one of the key areas for improvement and his designs aim to give those with dementia the tools they need to retain their eating skills for longer.

He has implemented simple ideas such as using colour to ensure the food contrasts with the plate, or handles and plate edges that are designed to accommodate those with arthritis.

For those with more limited dexterity, a high-lipped design helps residents keep food on the plate, while cups with a neoprene layer, allowing them to be gripped when hot, replace a more stigmatising double-handed cup.

“Aesthetics matter,” Timlin says, “because people can’t help but judge the identity of a person by the objects they surround themselves with. Our aim is to reduce the stigma attached to using assistive products.”

For those requiring assistance with eating, plates are designed so that care-workers can hold them within the resident’s sensory range of sight and smell, so that feeding becomes more about the experience of eating than about performing a task.

Timlin has designed tables to accommodate wheelchairs too, so that residents can get close enough to their food to eat, and lights that can be adjusted to compensate for visual impairment.

The research duo quote a statistic from a UK Alzheimer’s Society report which found that the average person in care interacted with a staff member in an activity that was not related to a care task for as little as two minutes every six hours.

“Our project is about designing an environment where independence can be retained for as long as possible,” says Timlin. “Everyone wants to be independent and hopefully these designs can free up staff to spend their time in more meaningful ways with those with dementia.”

Rysenbry’s area of expertise was in looking at the bedrooms of those with dementia living in care. “Personalisation enables residents to retain independence as well as making living in care a more positive and less stressful experience,” he says.

The New Zealander advocates continuing personalisation from the bedroom into the corridors of the care home to not only help residents more easily locate their rooms but also inspire pride for the home.

He identifies dressing as another area where independence can be prolonged. By designing clothes hangers that store full outfits, he says residents “are enabled to make dressing decisions more easily and better understand the order in which clothes are put on”.

In Ireland, dementia affects about one in 20 people aged over 65 years, rising to one in four in the 80 plus age group.

With estimates that in 20 years, the numbers of people with dementia will double and that by 2036, 104,000 people will be affected, Timlin and Rysenbry’s idea of designing for dementia is timely.

“We’ve completed the research now and developed prototypes,” says Timlin. “We’d love to talk to people about developing the ideas further – but our hope is that our work will at least provide guidance to other product designers or to care homes themselves.”

By creating care facilities that make it easier for carers to deliver a good level of person-centred care and empowering residents to optimise their existing abilities, the pair has designs on creating a care home environment that people with dementia deserve.

Dementia design is something to which the Alzheimer Society of Ireland is also playing close attention. Today, President McAleese, a patron of the society, will officially open The Orchard in Blackrock, a respite centre for those with dementia which has dementia design principles at its core.

With sight and spatial perception sometimes a difficulty for those with dementia, particularly in artificial light, the centre’s architects have sought to maximise natural light. They’ve also used contrasting colours on doors to help orientation and have used picture rather than written signage to aid recognition.

Annie Dillon, projects officer with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, says, “We’ve used dementia design principles to maximise the independence of residents and compensate for any visual impairment. Dementia design will also be applied in another, midwest respite centre we are opening next year.”

For more information, visit: hhc.rca.ac.uk/

Dementia affects onein 20people over 65 years of age, rising to onein fourin the 80 plus age group.

By 2036, 104,000people will be affected